Napoli were certainly one of the main surprises of the season. In fact, they succeeded reaching the third standing in the table thanks to an extraordinary array of performances that, at some stage, made them the only valid contenders for Milan. To tell the truth, up until the end of November, Napoli's season was far from impressive. Possibly due to the Europa League's commitment, they had some troubles coming out of the midtable. Things started to change in December and in January when a positive streak brought them all the way up to the top standings. Coach Mazzarri seemed to have learned from the mistakes done in the previous season when the team had started falling during the second half of the season, after an impressive beginning. Hamsik, Cavani and Lavezzi proved to be unstoppable in attack, and the January transfer window had also Mascara joining them as an excellent substitute, while the defence was remarkably solid, in fact, the second best of the Serie A, with only 39 goals conceded. When Napoli were expected to make the quantum leap, with only a few more weeks before the end of the season and Milan at so close reach, something stopped working. Cavani, who had been fighting up until then in order to become the top scorer of the Serie A, stopped scoring and started getting several bans. Thus, Napoli ended up being overtaken by Inter. The lack of experience of most players at such an high level and the lack of real valid alternatives to the three wonder-boys certainly cost Mazzarri's team dearly.
